Steering wheel controls "stick"?

Hello
So, as the title states, on my 2013 , my up/down arrow steering wheel control (changes the track, etc) sticks in a depressed state, but slowly comes back to neutral. It's also sort of hard to depress. It feels like a mini shock absorber now vs the nice pop it used to have.

It feels like it might have gotten something behind there (smutz of some sort), but I didn't spill anything and my wife swears it wasn't her either (I was out of town for 2 weeks when this started happening).

So I guess my question is, has anyone else experienced this and could it be the result of some sort of failure in the control?

Second question would be is there an easy way to remove the control to clean/inspect it? I've been looking for videos/diagrams with not such luck.

Thanks for the help

 

There is most definitely a substance in there. Get some electrical contact cleaner and spray it out. Use a rag to cover the buttons when you spray, so you dont get blasted.